(CNSNews.com) - "There is a lot of quality to be had in poverty," and the introduction of electricity is "destroying" the cultures of the world's poor, according to a U.S. environmentalist, who commented on the eve of the United Nations Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

But a pioneer of the environmental movement who left it because he viewed it as too radical, called the anti-electricity views an example of the "eco-imperialism" of the white upper-middle class who think it's "neat to have Africans with no electricity."

Gar Smith, editor of the Earth Island Institute's online magazine The Edge, spoke about what he considers the virtues of poverty during an interview with CNSNews.com.

Earth Island Institute, the San Francisco-based environmental group, once popular with millions of school children for its efforts to save Keiko, the killer whale that starred in the movie Free Willy, sent representatives to this week's Earth Summit.

"The idea that people are poor doesn't mean that they are not living good lives," Smith said.

Smith called the developing world's poverty "relative" and explained "you can't really have poverty unless you have wealthy people on the scene."

Smith decried the introduction of electricity to the poor residents of the developing world.

"I don't think a lot of electricity is a good thing. It is the fuel that powers a lot of multi-national imagery," Smith said.

According to Smith, electricity can wreak havoc on cultures. "I have seen villages in Africa that had vibrant culture and great communities that were disrupted and destroyed by the introduction of electricity," he said.

With the introduction of electricity, the African villagers spent too much time watching television and listening to the radio, allowing their more primitive traditional ways to fade away, according to Smith.

Smith lamented that "people who used to spend their days and evenings in the streets playing music on their own instruments and sewing clothing for their neighbors on foot peddle powered sewing machines" lost their culture with the advent of electricity.

"If there is going to be electricity, I would like it to be decentralized, small, solar-powered," Smith said.

Smith challenged Americans to give up their own modern conveniences.

"The real question is what personal conveniences and self indulgences are you willing to give up in order to stop destroying the planet?" he asked rhetorically.

The U.S. is not a model for the rest of the world to follow because "the level at which Americans consume is unsustainable," according to Smith. He projected that if the rest of the world consumed at rates similar to the U.S., the environmental degradation would require "three extra planets to exploit."

He called the notion that the U.S. needs to export the "American way" of life nothing more than "myth making" and revealed that many of his friends have already voluntarily given up automobiles in favor of bicycles and mass transit.

Smith used the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union as an example of how to solve ecological problems.

"There is a solution to climate change and pollution. We saw it happen to Russia when their economy collapsed. Their industrial plants closed down, the skies got clear. Their air is a lot cleaner now," Smith said.'Eco-Imperialism at its Worst'

Patrick Moore, head of the environmental advocacy group Greenspirit, and a former founding member of Greenpeace, called Smith's views "eco-imperialism at its worst."

Moore left Greenpeace in the 1980s after becoming disillusioned with what he considered the group's radical approach to environmental concerns.

"It's that kind of arrogance that is coming from a movement that is basically white upper-middle class and is saying that it's neat to have Africans with no electricity," Moore told CNSNews.com.

"It is the same tendency that has caused Europeans to conquer the whole planet in the first place," explained Moore.

Moore said Smith's views represent a "naive vision of returning to some kind of Garden of Eden, which was actually not that great because the average life span was 35."

"What does he think -- that some illiterate with her teeth falling out in the mountains is a good thing?" asked Moore.

The dire poverty that exists in the developing countries, especially in Africa and Latin America are a "kind of poverty that no one would wish on anyone," according to Moore.

But Moore said many of the poverty stricken residents of the developing world do seem optimistic despite their conditions.

"It is amazing that hope springs eternal and people with their teeth falling out who are dying of malnutrition, still laugh during the day. But that doesn't mean it's good," Moore said.

Moore now views the environmental movement as having lost its original mission of ecological protection and is now occupied with encouraging class envy and anti-capitalist rhetoric.

"The environmentalists try to inject guilt into people for consuming, as if consuming by itself causes destruction to the environment. There is no truth to that. You have the wealthiest countries on earth with the best looked after environment" he explained.

Poverty, not wealth, is one of the biggest threats to the Earth's ecological health, according to Moore. "Look at the environmental destruction caused by poverty. They have no money left to reforest, they have no money left to prevent soil erosion, there is no money to clean their water after they make it dirty," he said.

Moore does not have much regard for the environmentalists attending the Earth Summit.

"They are mainly political activists with not very much actual science background who are using the rhetoric of environmentalism to push agendas that are more political than they are ecological," Moore said.

But a pioneer of the environmental movement who left it because he viewed it as too radical, called the anti-electricity views an example of the "eco-imperialism" of the white upper-middle class who think it's "neat to have Africans with no electricity."

And they wonder why Bush did not attend their little racist KKK gathering?

According to Smith, electricity can wreak havoc on cultures. "I have seen villages in Africa that had vibrant culture and great communities that were disrupted and destroyed by the introduction of electricity," he said.

I guess he is saying that they should go back to eating grubs and tubers while living in huts made from cattle dung.

With the introduction of electricity, the African villagers spent too much time watching television and listening to the radio, allowing their more primitive traditional ways to fade away, according to Smith.

I thought that was called ADVANCEMENT.

Smith lamented that "people who used to spend their days and evenings in the streets playing music on their own instruments and sewing clothing for their neighbors on foot peddle powered sewing machines" lost their culture with the advent of electricity.

With all of that said, Smith returned to his air conditioned hotel room, turned on the television and started to read some old National Geographic magazines showing naked villagers somewhere in deepest Africa.

Enviro Nazis like Gar Smith are racist elitists, who hate humans, who are not the elite and often lilly white enviralists. They work 24/7 to destroy the human life they detest on this planet.

First, they ban DDT. As a result the daily human devastation in the third world is equal to about 5-6 huge jumbo jets crashing and killing everyone on board each day. That was/is nothing but pure racism.

They try to limit and stop the production of food in the US and other food exporters to starve the people who have to import food to feed their families and babie. How many people are starving to death today due to these Criminally Insane Eco Nazis?

They have pushed unlimited and government financed abortion to kill innocent babies before they are born. The death toll here has exceeded the total death tolls of the Commies when they devasted their own countrymen. The death toll from millions of aborted innocent babies is looked upon as a good thing for the enviroment by the sheeple of the world.

Now they want to ban electricity to third world countries. Next they will be banning modern medicine.

The Eco Nazis like Gar Smith, hate all humans but the few eco nazi elites like themselves. Their racism and hatred of others makes the original Nazis seem like pikers.

"The real question is what personal conveniences and self indulgences are you willing to give up in order to stop destroying the planet?" he asked rhetorically.

I'll look for this guy to give up all of his clothes(except those that he makes himself from reeds and other, non-animal products) and go live in a mud hut that he built with his own hands. He can grow his own food, and swear off all medical care, electricity, sanitary water, and climate control - other than fires, built and maintained without matches.

As soon as he does all this, I'll give up my SUV. But not until then.

Sheesh. Environmentalism is wonderful for everyone but the environmentalists.

""I have seen villages in Africa that had vibrant culture and great communities that were disrupted and destroyed by the introduction of electricity," he said."

Culture? Right! What culture?

I want to see this commie give up his western life style to go into the bush and chuck spears for a living. The brown and black leaders around the world have declared war on the white race. It is an economic war and they depend upon liberal white guilt to support their stupid positions.

The biggest problem is too few Alan Keyes and way too many Jessie Jackasses.

Notice to the brown and black leadership: there are not enough smart, productive, motivated, people in the world to pull you lazy bastards along if you are all going to sit on your butts in the cart.

"The idea that people are poor doesn't mean that they are not living good lives," Smith said. Smith called the developing world's poverty "relative" and explained "you can't really have poverty unless you have wealthy people on the scene." Smith decried the introduction of electricity to the poor residents of the developing world. "I don't think a lot of electricity is a good thing. It is the fuel that powers a lot of multi-national imagery," Smith said.

Holy crap. I'm having an Atlas Shrugged moment:

"The importance of industry to a civilization has been grossly overemphasized," said Dr. Ferris dreamily. "What is now known as the People's State of India has existed for centuries without any industrial development whatever."

"People could do with fewer material gadgets and a sterner discipline of privations," said Eugene Lawson eagerly. "It would be good for them."

...She saw what they wanted and to what goal their "instincts", which they called unaccountable, were leading them. She saw that Eugene Lawson, the humanitarian, took pleasure at the prospect of human starvation--and Dr. Ferris, the scientist, was dreaming of the day when men would return to the hand-plow.

This is a unique way that Freepers will be fighting the half truths an outright insane lies of the Green Jihadists in Oregon. If you want to see how the truth will get out, please go to this thread. If you want to contribute, let Ebuck know. We will soon have a group formed to help collect money to keep this ground breaking bulletin board up until at least past the elections.

"The real question is what personal conveniences and self indulgences are you willing to give up in order to stop destroying the planet?" he asked rhetorically.

I pledge to stop selling any and all goods and services to unscientific/irrational environmentalists. Let them go live among nature void of man's intervention as many peasants did during the Dark Ages. They must remember to not start any fires. Thus, if they want a hot meal they'll have to wait for lightning to start a forest fire.

Those friends mentioned in the article, who have given up their automobiles for, walking, biking or riding their brooms, probably had no choice-it's hard to keep a drivers license while following a diet of psychedelic mushrooms.

So it wasn't just me?. Thanks for the quotes- I had the same experience while reading this tripe. It does make you wonder, though: maybe this creep just wants an excuse for not having to take a shower once in a while. These enviro-weenies all appear to avoid work, responsibility, and soap at all costs.

According to Smith, electricity can wreak havoc on cultures. "I have seen villages in Africa that had vibrant culture and great communities that were disrupted and destroyed by the introduction of electricity," he said.

These people are no more than zoo exhibits to him. He doesn't seem to care that maybe the PEOPLE he's talking about might rather NOT have to work themselves to death putting food in their mouths, roofs over their heads and clothing on their backs. Without electricity, the above three goals require every moment of one's brief and miserable life to accomplish.

Poverty is not relative. Death by parasites, infections, and in childbirth isn't merely a point of view. Anyone who thinks that is a happy lifestyle should volunteer to trade - he or she'd find plenty of takers.

Quality in poverty? I'd like to see quality with poor dems bashed up by chimps like the guy above. (Bunch of sick Fisk wannabes insulting the intelligence of people(hint:only dems can read and be rich and have electricity))

Earth Island Institute, the San Francisco-based environmental group, once popular with millions of school children for its efforts to save Keiko, the killer whale that starred in the movie Free Willy, sent representatives to this week's Earth Summit.

Once you realize that this type of leftism--condoms instead of abstinence for AIDS in Africa, banning of DDT, implacable support for abortion--is concerned only with killing as many people as possible in the shortest possible time do you begin to understand where this guy is coming from.

Leftism is about power. Killing people is what leftism is about, because killing someone without any consequences is the ultimate expression of power.

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